WEEK OF november 22, 2004

In A Lonely Place Arlen Specter is the same.

roberto westbrook roberto It’s the GOP that’s changed.

By T.R. Goldman staff member was now 14 months away from being the longest serving senator in the history of Pennsylvania—after fellow The harsh glare of the single television spotlight made Arlen Republican Boise Penrose, who died in office on Dec. 31, 1921. Specter’s face shine unnaturally, and his smile was tight and He had survived a grueling primary against Rep. Patrick prearranged. Toomey (R-Pa.), and an unexpectedly tough general election The disembodied voice of CNBC’s Gloria Borger was work- against Rep. Joseph Hoeffel (D-Pa.). ing its way into Specter’s ear. Behind him, the rotunda of the But when Specter takes over the Senate Judiciary Committee Senate’s Russell Building glowed in the sunset. in January, as he now appears certain to do, he will be noted The conversation had turned to Richard Viguerie, the arch- more for surviving an infelicitous remark at a euphoric Nov. conservative direct mail guru, and one of those most promi- 3 press conference—that it was “unlikely” that the committee nently opposing the Pennsylvania Republican’s ascension to the would confirm any judicial nominee who would overturn Roe chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee. v. Wade—than for possessing what his supporters say is a long “I’m not about to make any deals with Richard Viguerie,” and distinguished career as one of the Senate’s few remaining said Specter, his eyes blinking with intensity. “[N]obody elected centrist Republicans. Richard Viguerie to anything. Somebody ought to tell him.” Specter has insisted—in 34 subsequent media interviews— He paused. that he was merely stating the obvious; but the Associated Press “Maybe he watches your show, Gloria,” Specter said in his article, which ran shortly after the press conference, termed it trademark drawl, cracking a sliver of a smile. more starkly, saying Specter had “bluntly warned” President It was late afternoon on Veterans Day, and the Capitol was shut George W. Bush not to nominate anyone who would seek to tight. Yet here was Specter, possibly the only senator in the build- overturn abortion rights. ing, his staff in tow, on his eighth straight day of damage control. An acrid battle followed, one which pitted Specter, working to It was not supposed to be like this. defend his upcoming chairmanship with virtually no initial support Just 10 days earlier, Specter had won his fifth Senate term; from his GOP colleagues, against a highly mobilized base of secu- the former Philadelphia prosecutor and Warren Commission lar conservatives, evangelical Christians, and radio talk show hosts. Specter immediately launched a full-throttle offensive, pri- Bork for the U.S. Supreme Court, a vote that has led to contin- vately talking to colleagues, publicly reciting his mantra to tele- ued hard feelings between the two men, and which many conser- vision, radio, and print reporters: “I have not and would not use vatives have never forgiven. a litmus test to deny confirmation to pro-life nominees.” “He hasn’t insulted me since yesterday,” Specter jokes as he The matter took precisely two weeks to resolve, ending with walks through the deserted Senate hallways on Veterans Day. a second upbeat press conference on Nov. 18. Surrounded by his Bork had described Specter as “shifty” in a New York Times GOP committee colleagues, Specter issued a formal statement article the day before. reiterating his loyal Republican bona fides. Laughing and smil- Specter joined Democrats on the Judiciary Committee to vote ing, everyone made nice. against the 1986 nomination of Alabaman Jeff Sessions for a But Specter knows better. To him, the controversy was only seat on the federal bench. Ten years later, Sessions was elected the most recent episode of a long-running drama, one in which to the Senate and now sits with Specter on the committee. It’s a a Jewish Republican from an overwhelmingly Democratic city, vote that Specter, who has since gotten to know Sessions, says a man who lost four elections before reaching the Senate, has he now regrets. survived for yet another day. In 1991, Specter provoked just as much ire in the liberal com- “That’s the story of my life, I mean, really, it is,” Specter says munity, not simply for his support of Clarence Thomas for a seat in an interview with Legal Times. on the Supreme Court, but for questioning the veracity of Anita Hill, who insisted that Thomas had sexually harassed her. Taking Fire From All Sides To many people watching the televised hearings, Specter’s In many respects, Specter’s post-election press conference— prosecutorial manner came across as insensitive and brutish. the one that caused all the trouble—was vintage Specter: arro- In his biography, A Passion for Truth, Specter provides a gant, dry-humored, intellectual, discursive. minutely layered account of his life, one that emphasizes detail “I would like to see us select someone in the mold of Holmes, more than introspection, but does not whitewash his more con- Brandeis, Cardozo, or Marshall,” said Specter, answering a ques- troversial achievements either. He provides favorable reviews of tion about the characteristics he was looking for in a potential his cross-examination of Hill, but also quotes Washington Post nominee to the Supreme Court. “With all due respect to the U.S. television critic Tom Shales, who called his questioning “merci- Supreme Court, we don’t have one.” less, snide, supercilious.” Philadelphia television reporter Vernon Odom, perhaps not Specter is still defensive about his performance. “I was aware sure of what he was hearing, persisted: “Are you saying there is there were 14 white guys with blue suits and white shirts and red not greatness on there? Is that what you’re driving at?” ties, and that she was sitting all by herself, and [how] it came “Yes,” Specter replied. “Can you take yes for an answer, across on television.” But, he insists: “Find one question, tone, Vernon?” inflection, or substance that I didn’t handle like a professional. It’s safe to say that Specter probably wishes he stayed several “I came very close to talking about our common background miles away from anything remotely resembling a comment on at [the University of] Oklahoma, but I decided that would be judicial nominations. Especially after Bush had gone to bat for patronizing.” the man, leaving the president’s far right flank unusually exposed. The Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill hearings became a cause But Specter’s pro-choice, outspokenly independent brand célèbre; Specter’s 1992 Senate opponent, Lynn Yeakel, made it of Republican politics had long been seen as traitorous by the sole issue in her campaign. Specter won in a three-way race, many conservative activists. Indeed, more than a year ago, he but he garnered only 49 percent of the vote. made the cover of the conservative National Review with the He chaired the Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism in 1995, headline: “The Worst Republican Senator.” which held hearings into misconduct by the Federal Bureau of “This didn’t surprise me. They’ve been after me forever,” Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms notes Specter. at Ruby Ridge, Idaho. He also launched a quixotic, eight-month “I didn’t warn anyone about anything,” he adds about the Nov. run for president that year. 3 press conference. “But it made a good newspaper story and Then there was the 1998 impeachment vote over President off Dr. Dobson and his group went,” he says, referring to James Bill Clinton. Specter insisted on choosing a verdict for both Dobson, the fatherly founder of the conservative advocacy group articles of impeachment that was not part of U.S. jurispru- Focus on the Family. dence. And while the choice of “not proven” did do justice to Indeed, after 24 years in the Senate (all of which have been the Senate trial—because no witnesses were called—Specter spent on the Judiciary Committee), 14 years in the Philadelphia invoked Scottish law to do it. And he added the phrase, “and district attorney’s office, and four failed runs for public office, he therefore not guilty.” has weathered infinitely worse. The additional caveat made a historic difference, at least on Any political figure with four decades of public life manages the obstruction charge outlined in the second article of impeach- to make headlines. Specter, however, seems to have prompted ment, and only managed to resurrect the deep-seated anger con- enough copy for a career twice as long. servatives still felt toward Specter about Bork. He is still regularly harangued for his central role in develop- The vote to convict Clinton on obstruction charges ended ing the single-bullet theory of the John F. Kennedy assassina- with a 50-50 tie. If Specter had simply said “not proven,” then tion, which eliminates conspiracy theorists’ second gunman by his vote would have been counted as “present.” In that case, the positing that the same bullet both killed President Kennedy and final vote tally, while still well short of the 67 needed to convict, wounded Texas Gov. John Connally. would have been 50-49-1, at the very least a symbolic one-vote In 1987, Specter helped derail the nomination of Judge Robert majority in favor of conviction. “Most conservatives felt he should have been there with the From his perch as chairman or ranking member of the conference,” says a senior aide to a GOP member of the Senate Senate Appropriations Labor, Health and Human Services, and Judiciary Committee. Education Subcommittee, he and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) “At least he could have helped us get 50 votes. But because of have worked to double funding for the National Institutes of Specter, we didn’t even get a majority. And the worst part was he Health over the past five years. didn’t have the cojones to [vote ‘present’]. He pulls this Scottish law nonsense. It was more attitudinal than anything else.” A Republican by Chance Specter’s Republican Party credentials have been burnished Last of a Dying Breed over 40 years. But he was a Democrat until he first ran for elect- When Specter was first elected to the Senate in 1980, fill- ed office in 1965. ing the seat of retiring Republican Sen. Richard Schweiker, he By then, Specter was already well-known, at least in joined a freshman class of 16 GOP sena- Philadelphia. As an assistant district attor- tors, enough to put a Republican major- ney with a Yale Law School degree, he had ity in the Senate for the first time since led the prosecution of Teamsters Local 107, 1955. Several of the newcomers defeated a corruption case that was followed closely venerable Democratic bulls: Slade Gorton by then-Attorney General Robert Kennedy beat Appropriations Chairman Warren Mag­ t’s good to have in Washington. nuson of Washington, Steven Symms beat Specter’s success in the case led to a cov- Frank Church of Idaho, and Mack Mattingly ‘ somebody in my eted staff slot on the Warren Commission. beat Herman Talmadge of Georgia. I When he returned to Philadelphia, At that time, there were at least a dozen Specter was appointed by then-Gov. William other like-minded moderate-to-liber- position to pro- Scranton to lead a special task force investi- al Republicans in the Senate, people like gating the city’s judicial magistrate system, Oregonians Bob Packwood and Mark vide some balance then steeped in bribe-taking and corruption. Hatfield, Connecticut’s Lowell Weicker Though sometimes criticized for garnering Jr., Wyoming’s Alan Simpson, Illinois’ headlines more than convictions, the inves- Charles Percy; Maryland’s Charles “Mac” in the Judiciary tigation eventually led to the demise of the Mathias Jr., Missouri’s John Danforth, magistrate system in Philadelphia. Rhode Island’s John Chafee, and Specter’s Committee,’ And Specter launched his public career, Pennsylvania colleague, John Heinz. deciding to run in 1965 for district attorney Today, that number has dwindled to four: as a Democrat. Maine’s two senators, Olympia Snowe Specter says. The chairman of the Democratic City and Susan Collins; Chafee’s son, Lincoln; Committee, Frank Smith, turned him down, and Specter. Moderate James Jeffords of ‘It’s good for Specter recalls, telling him that “we don’t Vermont dropped out of the GOP in 2001 want a young Tom Dewey.” and became the Senate’s only independent. America. It’s good “So, then the Republicans offered me the Specter is adamant about remaining part nomination, no strings attached. I stayed of the GOP. a registered Democrat and ran on the “I’m not going to become a Democrat, so for the party.’ Republican ticket,” Specter says. “The nom- I [have] to move the party. . . . That’s why ination wasn’t worth very much, but I shook I’m trying to move them to the center. every hand in town and won.” “If you heard what goes on in the caucus He changed his registration after he won. when Olympia and Susan and Lincoln stand up to talk, it’s very In fact, says Carl Feldbaum, an assistant district attorney under good to have somebody right now in my position to provide Specter who later became chief of staff in his Senate office, in some balance in the Judiciary Committee. It’s good for America, Philadelphia in the early 1960s, Republicans were the reform party. and it’s good for the party.” “There had been a corrupt Democratic regime that had run the Despite his pro-choice stand, there’s no question Specter is a city for a long time, and they had driven it straight down hill,” Republican. He’s in favor of capital punishment and voted against adds Feldbaum, the outgoing president of the Biotechnology both the assault weapons ban and partial-birth abortion. And he Industry Organization. has voted in favor of certain, but not all, civil justice reforms, Two years into his first term, Specter lost his bid for even though his son, Shanin, is a successful trial lawyer. Philadelphia mayor by just 11,000 votes. He has also written significant crime legislation, including the He won a second term as D.A. in 1969, the last election he Armed Career Criminal Act of 1984, which bolstered sentenc- would win for 11 years. He lost his race for a third term as ing requirements for certain crimes committed with a gun, and the D.A. in 1973. Terrorist Prosecution Act of 1986, which allows the government to “That campaign, plus his upset loss for the mayor, led to prosecute people who murder, assault, or maim U.S. citizens abroad. Specter taking nothing for granted thereafter,” says Joseph He has also been active in social policy. Specter was the chief McLaughlin, a fellow at Temple University’s Institute of Public GOP sponsor of the Fair Housing Act amendments of 1988, and Affairs. “He became very focused, no matter how much of a lead sponsored hate crimes legislation with Sen. Ted Kennedy (D- he had,” says McLaughlin, who was an adviser to Specter’s 1973 Mass.) in 1997. opponent, Emmet Fitzpatrick. The losses, however, continued. has typically had African-Americans in senior positions, as well In 1976, Specter was defeated in the Republican Senate pri- as often hiring Democrats. mary by John Heinz. In 1978, he was defeated in the Republican Barry Caldwell, now a senior executive at Waste Management, gubernatorial primary by Richard Thornburgh, who became the was Specter’s chief of staff from 1992 to 1996—the first black commonwealth’s next governor. chief of staff hired by a Senate Republican. Specter ran for the Senate once again in 1980. This time he “He’s a piece of work to work for. He is not easy to work for, won with 50 percent of the vote. but you do end up respecting the guy because he’s fair,” says “This is a guy who is totally focused and extremely smart, Caldwell, adding that he would work for Specter again if he with core beliefs,” says Shanin Specter, who is probably his could afford it. father’s closest adviser. “And he has never been afraid to lose.” Specter calls the widespread feeling that his office is one of the most difficult places to work on Capitol Hill a “bum rap.” Outside the Lines In fact, many former staffers speak almost reverentially of He also grew up as something of an outsider, a trait that is still their experience there. evident today. “Most recesses, he would be going from one city to another, Specter’s father, Harry, was a Jewish immigrant from the or taking a congressional delegation trip, and he would invariably Ukraine who never had any formal education; his mother, Lillian call the committee,” says Steven Hilton, a former counsel in the Shanin Specter, came from a small town near the Russian-Polish late 1980s who is now a partner at Buchanan Ingersoll. “ ‘God border. damn it, Steve. I’m glad somebody’s working around here,’ he’d The family moved to Russell, Kan., former Senate Majority say. ‘You’re a good man.’ And that would make you feel good.” Leader Bob Dole’s hometown, in 1942, when Specter was 12. By then, Specter’s father had a scrap metal business recycling Taking the Helm iron from oil derricks. They weighed their metal at the Russell With Specter chairing the Judiciary Committee, it may be Grainery, which was run by Dole’s father. even easier for President Bush to get his conservative judicial The Specters were the only Jewish family in Russell, and this appointments through the committee. Democrats will have a sense of being an outsider, believes Specter’s longtime friend and harder time justifying opposition to a nominee the moderate fund-raiser Stephen Harmelin, helped shape Specter’s career. Specter supports. “He had the indignation that only someone outside the “If Specter will put his seal of approval on a nominee, you system could have,” says Harmelin, the managing partner at get the left side [of the committee] and you obviously get the Philadelphia’s Dilworth Paxson, who first met Specter in 1965. right side because it’s the president’s pick,” says conservative “I would assume the insularity and recognition of your differ- Philadelphia radio talk show host Michael Smerconish, a friend ence from the majority plays on your personality.” of Specter. Specter says he wanted to go to the University of Kansas, but There are at least two other areas where Specter seems almost there were no Jewish fraternities there in 1948, so he switched certain to push the committee beyond its current role, says fel- to the University of Oklahoma for one year before transferring low committee member Joseph Biden Jr. (D-Del.), who is also a to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where his par- longtime friend. ents had by then moved. “Oversight will be significantly greater with Specter. That’s Two years ago, recalls Specter, the chancellor of the just his nature,” says Biden. In fact, Specter drew attention in the University of Kansas, Robert Hemenway, came to see him. “I late 1990s for his extended, and somewhat singular, inquiry into thought he wanted money, but he wanted me to come to Dole’s then-Attorney General Janet Reno’s performance. 80th birthday,” says Specter, referring to his slot as the chairman There will also be renewed emphasis on the entire criminal of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that often earmarks justice system. money for universities. “This man’s a prosecutor, so he’s very, very fastidious, and “I said, ‘You know you excluded Jews at the University of correctly so and jealous of the Senate’s prerogatives,” Biden says. Kansas from fraternities.’ He about fell off his chair. “So I don’t think the agencies are going to push him around.” “I wasn’t looking for an opportunity to tell him what a Specter himself is keeping mum about his plans for the Neanderthal they were, but I took it,” Specter says. Judiciary Committee. The last two weeks have given him good It’s often remarked, at least by many former Specter staffers, reason to watch what he says. that Specter has never stopped being a lawyer. And he runs his “It really would be unwise to talk too much about it,” he says. Senate office like a law firm—where he’s the senior partner. “Whatever I say will be picked apart. Everything I will do will It’s also an office that’s long been racially integrated. Specter have people who don’t like it.” ■